Following the ‘Brexit’ result in the EU referendum, there has been an increase of over 60% in web traffic to UK NARIC’s Visas & Nationality service.
The Visas & Nationality service supports applications through the points based system of immigration and for migrants wishing to settle in the UK.
In the week following the vote, numbers of visitors to the Visas & Nationality web pages leapt to over 1.6 times the pre-referendum average.
UK-based visitors to the V&N web pages doubled. Migrants who are already living in the UK can apply for extensions to their current visa, or apply for settlement, citizenship or naturalisation. Visitor numbers from other EU countries were up over a third.
This could reflect some of the uncertainties on EU mobility and free movement post-referendum, and may mean we can expect applications from EU citizens seeking to settle in the UK.
We will soon see if web traffic and interest translates into actual applications.
So far, since the launch of the Visas & Nationality service on 6 April (it replaces the old online Points Based Calculator), only 4% of applications for purposes of settlement, citizenship and naturalisation have come from nationals of other EU countries. If any changes in this pattern do emerge, it should be immediately noticeable.
